Bank Account
by White Angel of Auralon
Summary: What if there was one Person in Little Whinging that didn't simply believe the stories about Harry that Petunia and Vernon told their neighbours, but actually looked to see what was going on. What if that Person acted, to at least give Harry some justice for what he had to endure there? One-shot


**Hi, everybody. This one-shot came to me one day and I thought it a nice little idea to write out. Basically, what if somebody didn't buy into the stories of Petunia and acted in the one way they could to give Harry some satisfaction? This is the result.**

 **As Always, I don't own anything in the Harry Potter universe, just this idea and am playing in J.K. Rowling's sandbox here.**

 **Happy reading.**

* * *

It wasn't anything outstanding that made Harry Potter a very rich young man when he graduated from Hogwarts. You could say, it was more along the lines of the old saying, he had worked for several years for his wealth. Not to mention, he didn't have a clue that he had got all that money. But, as he surprisingly found out, there actually was a decent person, living around the neighbourhood he had grown up in. One woman that decidedly hated Petunia and Vernon Dursley and only had contempt for how gullible the majority of the neighbours were.

Agnes Stone was forty-one years old when the Dursleys suddenly found themselves in the position of having to raise their orphaned nephew. Now, Agnes was a devout Christian and for her, it was simply the duty of any decent person to take in a baby that cruelly had lost its parents before it could even remember them properly. She didn't buy into the stories that Petunia started telling about the boy half a year after he had moved in with them. How could any baby cause the kind of trouble she described? A hellion? Her own boy was naughty already, and whenever Agnes saw her taking both boys out, when she couldn't get old Mrs Figg to babysit for her, the black-haired Harry was much better-behaved than her own blond son.

Agnes, like most other women in the neighbourhood, watched what her neighbours did. But, contrary to the others, she looked deeper and didn't listen to the spiteful Petunia. She had noticed that Petunia would never let any criticism about her son stand, instead deflecting any negative comment onto Harry Potter. When the boy turned four, Agnes noticed that Petunia and Vernon forced him to do small tasks around the house. While it could be argued that it was too early for any child to assist with chores, that alone wouldn't have made her take alarmed notice. It was how Harry was shouted at when he did something wrong, how Petunia only ordered him around, never having a kind word for him, and let her own son grow fatter and fatter, while Harry looked as if he didn't get enough to eat.

Which shouldn't be possible when Vernon and Dudley clearly showed that there wasn't a lack of food inside that family.

Agnes worked at the local bank, where Vernon and Petunia had their account. Now, if this had been twenty years later, her actions wouldn't have been possible at all. But, during the 1980's, processes at a bank weren't as closely observed as they were later on. Computers were just coming out with basic models for the public and even a bank didn't use them yet to keep track of their transactions. Everything was done by hand and then put into the customer files, where it stayed, unless the customer asked about a specific transaction. Even the account statements were stilled typed with a typewriter. Agnes knew that Petunia and Vernon didn't really keep track of their finances. It was something she could only shake her head about.

They complained about their nephew only costing them money, but they never looked out for what they spent said money. She had seen how Petunia only went for brand products at the supermarket or the clothes shop. No matter that the clothes discounter was next door and sold similar clothes that she bought for her fat son for a third of the price, if not less. She could clothe both boys decently if she bought the clothes there, but no, that wouldn't suit her image as the wife of a successful businessman. And Agnes, having three children herself, knew that children grew out of their clothes very fast, so spending money on brand products for them was stupid.

Agnes, after having realised that Petunia was basically exploiting her nephew as cheap labour, decided, as nobody at the police wanted to take her concerns about the child serious, to at least vindicate the boy in some small way. Every craftsman was paid for his work, so was every person that cleaned the house of others or did the garden work. Thus, only seeing it as just payment for all the work he did, she set up an account in Harry Potter's name at her bank. It wasn't a problem at all, as nobody would ever find out that it hadn't been Petunia and Vernon that set the account up for maintenance of the boy.

People would assume they were the ones doing so and the money going into it being paid by some fund or the government. Agnes knew that Petunia never checked the statements of the second account that they used for the monthly upkeep of the household. Vernon's main account, onto which his salary was paid, was used to pay for all fixed amounts, the other was basically only used by Petunia to get money for groceries, clothes, cleaning supplies and so on. Vernon had a money transfer order from his account to not be bothered by the things Petunia had to buy regularly. He left the management of the house and family to her, while he worked at his drill's company.

Agnes calculated that all the work Harry Potter was forced to do was equal to a full-time job for other people. After all, while, after he was enrolled at primary school, he mainly worked in the afternoon and on the weekends, it easily added up to forty hours a week on average. That deserved to be paid properly. Considering that the tasks were simple, the payment couldn't be too much, but it had to be fair. She firmly believed that justice could be achieved in many ways and taking from Petunia and Vernon what they took from the boy in form of his labour, was only deserved. Thus, another money transfer order was established from Petunia's account that covered her household money to the account of Harry Potter.

Of course, Agnes wasn't stupid enough to put that into the purpose of the transfer. She called it House Maintenance Fund. Petunia would assume, if she ever actually checked the statements, that Vernon had set that transfer up in case something came up. The transfer was for three hundred and fifty Pounds. It wasn't as much as a real craftsman would earn doing the same amount of work, but she had to keep it at a level that Petunia wouldn't consider strange. And, to top it off, Agnes had arranged that the money was transferred the day Vernon's money transfer order from his main account would replenish the household money. He always transferred one thousand Pounds onto the account. When Petunia commented that the money was always a tight fit, how she got that impression Agnes didn't know, as she didn't need six hundred and fifty Pounds to feed a family of five, simply because she had mastered the art of actually cooking appropriate amounts of food and buying cheaper base products, Vernon even increased the amount to one thousand and five hundred Pounds. That was when Agnes also adjusted the amount Harry got to five hundred. After all, the older he became, the more Petunia forced him to work.

Well, he did get about five thousand Pounds as Sales Director each month, thus he could easily afford it. And that was only the base salary. He got more on top for bonuses, sales commissions and profit sharing whenever he had finished a successful deal. Thus, it didn't bother her at all that she was redirecting a part of that money to the one that honestly earned it by working for it. The poor boy really needed something good happening in his life. She believed that the Dursleys would in the end pay for their sins towards their nephew and that her actions were along what a Christian should do to help as much as possible in the given situation.

* * *

Harry was surprised to get a letter from somebody he only vaguely remembered by name. Agnes Stone was a woman that lived in the neighbourhood he had grown up in. She was nice to him, the few times she babysat him when Mrs Figg wasn't available. She had even been the one to teach him some basics about proper cooking, not the stuff his aunt considered proper food, meaning the greasy and fat dishes she believed Dudley needed, simply because he would otherwise wail. Harry's favourite beef stew had been taught to him by her. It had only happened about five times during all the years he lived there, as his aunt didn't like Mrs Stone that much, simply because she worked full-time instead of being a housewife like most of the other women in Little Whinging.

He also didn't know how Mrs Stone had got his address. Well, perhaps she had asked the telephone hotline. He did live in the muggle world after all. After the war, he had tried living in the wizarding world, but he couldn't stand it. Everybody wanted a bit of his time, nobody wanted to respect his privacy and he was sick of it. Thus, against the protest of Molly Weasley, he had packed all of his belongings, it was sad to think that they all fit into one trunk, and had left the Burrow, where reporters had invaded regularly, even if Bill's wards stopped them from getting too close. But still, Molly believed that he should just give them some interviews to shut them up, which he refused to do, having had enough of dealing with the press after their lies about him over the years.

The letter wasn't very long, basically Mrs Stone asked him to visit her at the Greater Whinging branch of the bank that his aunt and uncle did their banking with. He didn't know why, but he didn't believe that Mrs Stone would trick him. He also didn't have anything urgent he needed to do, thus he called the number at the top of the letter to set up an appointment with her.

* * *

Agnes was looking forward to seeing how Harry had developed over the years. While she knew that he had gone to a boarding school, she didn't believe at all that Petunia's story about some school called St. Brutus Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys was true. Something else was going on and knowing how spiteful and jealous Petunia could be, probably her nephew had been enrolled at a better school than Smeltings by his late parents, even when he was just a baby. She had risen from her basic position as a bank clerk to a high-profile customer consultant by now. And thanks to her actions back in eighty-four Harry was now among those customers of the bank.

One of the clerks called her to inform her that Harry had arrived for his appointment. She had a last look at the papers she had prepared for the meeting and then stood from her chair and walked out of her office to collect the young man. He had turned eighteen last July and it was now possible for him to make his own decisions about his money. And there was a lot of it. As she hadn't been able to give him as much as he deserved when he was younger, she had simply kept up the transfers even while he was away at school. It evened out in the end. Though she had now stopped the transfer, after he had moved out permanently from his relatives. It wouldn't do to actually steal from them after all. She wouldn't do that.

When she reached the waiting room for high-profile customers she was pleased to see that Harry had grown into a handsome young man. He wore simple but fitting clothes, which were clean and properly ironed. Trousers, a green button-up shirt, dress shoes and different glasses than she remembered.

"Welcome at Tradshire & Birmingstone, Harry," she greeted him with a warm smile.

"Hello, Mrs Stone," He returned the smile.

"I have to say, you did grow well since I last saw you. I think that was in 1995?" She pondered.

"It probably was, I didn't leave the house much during the two weeks I was there in '96 and you were on vacation for three weeks in '97 when I was there," Harry nodded.

"Yes, that's true. Come on, let's go to my office. Do you still prefer Darjeeling tea?" She asked.

"I do. I didn't think you would remember that," Harry was surprised.

"As it's my favourite type as well, it was easy to remember," she revealed.

"Okay, that makes sense," agreed Harry and they left the room, where only one other customer was waiting, slightly surprised to see one of the top customer consultants of the bank being this familiar with a young man that clearly had only just come of age.

Harry followed Agnes to her office and took the offered seat. She played mother and prepared them both a cup of tea.

"How do you take it?" She asked.

"A spoon of sugar please, no milk or lemon," He answered.

She did just that and handed the cup over to him. They did some small talk, Harry asked about her children, who were all at least ten years older than him, and she asked about his schooling, which he edited to be suited for muggles. After all, he did have documents that would hold up in the muggle world, as he had asked Kingsley for them. He needed to manage blending in after all. Supposedly he was a student at a university in London.

"So, why did you contact me, Mrs Stone?" asked Harry, who was very curious about it.

"To understand this, I have to go back a bit. Contrary to most people in the neighbourhood, I never believed the tales your aunt Petunia told about your behaviour and you being a young hooligan. I have eyes and you didn't fit her descriptions at all. I also saw how she exploited you for all kinds of manual labour around the house. It angered me, but my requests at the police to look into the matter were ignored," revealed Agnes.

"You actually went to the police? For me?" asked Harry, shocked that anybody had actually tried to help him.

"I did, but the chief there was a friend of Vernon, thus he brushed it off as me having to be mistaken. My letters to social services were also ignored. I suspect that some higher-ups were involved, but I couldn't find out more. Thus, to not have things escalate, as they at least refrained from badly abusing you physically, outside of making you work whenever you weren't at school, I kept to observing. Though I decided to at least give you some compensation for being used as cheap labour. Your aunt and uncle never found out that they actually paid for the work you did."

Harry couldn't help it, he stared at her in disbelief.

"But how?"

"You see, your aunt is actually quite ignorant of how to properly manage finances. She would only complain to your uncle when she didn't have enough to pay for anything your cousin demanded to be given. Knowing this, I was sure that she would never investigate what the House Maintenance Fund was. She noticed that Vernon sent her money, at the beginning she would think it were six hundred and fifty Pounds meant to take care of all kinds of expenses, later on he increased the amount to let her have an even one thousand. At least that was what the ATM would tell her was available. Even if the ATMs only became standard in the early 90's. In small branches like Little Whinging, the cost didn't justify it yet. And any teller would have only told her the current balance, meaning what she could get. Vernon actually transferred one thousand and one thousand five hundred Pounds respectively, but the difference was transferred by a money transfer order to an account in your name," She explained.

"My name? But they would never set up an account for me. They complained that I cost them way too much all the time," wondered Harry.

"Of course, they wouldn't have done that. I did," revealed Agnes.

Harry gaped at her.

"Harry, I believe that everybody should receive the just rewards for the work they do. While you never agreed to working full-time for them, you still did. You cleaned, gardened, did repairs, went grocery shopping and many other things. Anything Petunia could think up. That means, as they didn't give you anything for the work, as raising you, their orphaned nephew, was what any decent Christian should do for free, you needed to be paid another way. I couldn't take too much money each month, thus the money transfer order didn't cover what a decent salary would have been while you actually did the work, but as I never stopped the transfer until you turned eighteen and moved out, it levelled out over time.

"I started it with three hundred and fifty Pounds a month in 1984. When Vernon increased the money, I also increased the transfer to five hundred Pounds that was in April 1987. At the beginning, your account was just a normal savings account, which the bank advertised for children with a very nice interest rate of three point five percent a year, as long as no money was withdrawn for five years. I knew that you wouldn't be able to touch the money before you were of age, thus I used the type of account that would bring you the most profit.

"In 1992, when our bank started the product, I transferred all the accumulated money from the savings account onto a mutual funds savings plan. Simply because the development chances were much better. The interest rates for normal savings accounts were decreased by the bank and I knew that you had a lot of time until you would be able to access any of that money. Thus, I created a new account for you, thankfully computers weren't in use back then yet, thus nobody commented on your aunt and uncle not actually signing the order form. Probably they didn't even notice, as I had convinced the two to set up such a mutual funds saving plan for your cousin Dudley, to gift it to him when he graduated from Smeltings. Your uncle did transfer one hundred Pounds into that plan each month.

"The fund has done really well over the years. You gained about eight percent interest on average. I simply had to change the recipient account number of where the House Maintenance Fund money went, and nobody knew better. The amounts were the same after all. And, to be honest, your aunt didn't check the statements once since I knew her. She only checked the available amount at the ATM, nothing more. Your uncle also only occasionally checked his own account, but as that one never had anything he didn't recognise being transferred, he never knew anything."

"I can't believe it. Mrs Stone, that has to be incredibly much money," Harry brought out.

"It indeed is, Harry. Thanks to the interest gained over fourteen and a half years since I set this up, you earned about one hundred forty-three thousand five hundred Pounds. And this isn't money that was stolen from your relatives. This is money that you rightfully earned by working hard for them, while enduring their despicable behaviour. I consider it your just reward for never giving into them and lashing out, even if I would have understood if you did. You are a good person, Harry, and I'm sure you will go on and do great things, now that you have control over your life. You didn't have an easy childhood, but I could manage to give you the starting capital to have a better adulthood," stated Agnes.

"Thank you, Mrs Stone. Thank you so much. Nobody has ever looked out for my future like this. While my parents left me money and made sure I got a good education by setting up a school trust for me, no adult I knew ever planned properly for my future," revealed Harry.

"You're very welcome, Harry," replied Agnes with a soft smile.

"Do you have any ideas what to do with the money? I mean, I don't want to spend it all at once. I'm used to living a normal life and don't need luxury," asked Harry.

"I suggest that you think in three categories for that, Harry," started Agnes. This was what she did for her customers after all, helping them set up very solid investment plans, "First, you need a certain amount of cash available at once, should something come up, like repairs for your car, needing a new dishwasher and similar events. You said that you were now attending university. During that time, you will want to not have to worry about your regular expenses. I don't know if you want to take up a part-time job to earn yourself money to finance your studies, or if you have something left of your inheritance, but I would put an additional amount aside to cover those parts."

"My studies are covered by my education trust, as is my flat. I have a small flat in a decent part of London, where I can easily pay the rent for the time I won't earn my own money yet. I sat down with the manager of the bank where my parents had their accounts to see what needed to be done," explained Harry.

In fact, he had been really lucky. Gringotts, after being told that Bellatrix Lestrange had kept a horcrux hidden in her vault for Voldemort, had decided that Harry only had to pay a small fine for destroying the entrance hall while riding out on the dragon. In return, he had to help them close any holes in their protection measures, as it had happened twice by now that a wizard managed to break in. First was the Voldemort-possessed Quirrell in 1991, and then Harry and his three friends. Griphook didn't get away as well, he was executed for betraying secrets of the bank, and attempting to start a revolt, using the Sword of Gryffindor to rally his troops. That was taken into consideration in the fines as well.

Harry had believably shown via pensieve memories that, had Griphook done his part as had been agreed, there wouldn't have been as much damage following his plan. He had planned to only destroy the cup and the other horcruxes, before letting Griphook have the sword. Stealing the dragon had been an act of desperation on their part, and the dragon was the only reason that the place had taken as much damage as it did.

Harry could continue doing his banking with the goblins and got information that he should have got on his seventeenth birthday about his financial situation. He wasn't rich, but well to do. He would easily manage learning any kind of job before he really needed to earn a full salary. He knew that traineeships didn't pay as well as when you were fully trained.

"That's good, then you can put more of the money to work for you. I would recommend putting some money into a long-term investment, and some into a middle term investment," She explained.

"What are the advantages of each, and how safe are they?" asked Harry, "I know that fonds of any kind bear risks, along with offering chances at a higher profit than normal savings accounts."

"We can decide which fonds to use, there are several different kinds. If you prefer a lot of safety for the money, you would choose one that only includes between ten to twenty percent of shares. The remaining eighty to ninety percent would be in things like government bonds from stable countries, bond-based funds and other things that give stable but lower profit. If you think that a balanced mix would be better, you can increase the percentage of the shares in the fond, which increases the chances of profit.

"Any kind of investment in shares should be done while looking at the long-term possibilities. The stock exchange has ups and downs, which happen regularly. If you want to invest over a long time with regular amounts of money, you will have a good way to achieve profit, as you will buy more shares when the course is low and less ones when it is high. Meaning, you wouldn't lose too much during a phase when the market goes down," pointed Agnes out, "When you invest a large amount at once, you need to think closely what option you choose. There are possibilities, which are most common in managed fonds, to choose an option to switch your investment around if there are first signs that the market will go down, to secure your investment. It costs a bit more but is a good idea for anybody that just starts out with investing money."

"That sounds logical. I wouldn't have any idea of what kind of fonds would be good to hold or to sell at what time. I never looked into any kind of investment strategies while I was still at school, and right now, I will be too busy with my studies at university to do either. I think, if I could leave instructions to switch the set-up of the fonds I invest into around by a trained professional, in case something happens, I would like to have a starting mix of sixty percent safe investments in the fond and forty in shares. If things turn sour, then switch them over to ninety percent safety and ten percent shares. How is the stock exchange doing right now?" asked Harry.

"Depends on what branch you are investing in, Harry. I would suggest, as you start out, to take a fond that has the shares percentage invested into the Euro Stoxx 50. It is the index for the fifty most successful shares in Europe, meaning the most successful businesses in the European Union. Which means, you already have the shares spread over several branches, from automobile companies like the German Volkswagen, to cosmetics like L'Oréal from France. There are also banks, technology enterprises and so on.

"The index has been rising over the past years, and so far, there aren't any signs that it will stop soon. I can set a mark into your investment portfolio, if the course falls lower than that, you want to switch around, and only return to the investments if the courses rise again," suggested Agnes.

"I like that idea. I know that just letting money lie around doesn't make sense, but I also don't want to risk too much," agreed Harry, happy to have this option available. Having to pay for it, would only make sense, and with an investment as large as he would make, it wouldn't matter in the long run.

"How much do you think I should keep available at short notice, Mrs Stone?" he wanted to know.

"I think you should keep about twenty thousand Pounds at hand and invest the remaining money. Possibly put forty thousand into a long-term investment and eighty thousand into middle term, split into one safer strategy and one more set up for chances, with more risks involved," she then showed him some brochures of fonds she would let him sign.

Harry read them carefully, knowing that it was devilishly hard to get out of contracts you didn't know much about. While these contracts were just muggle contracts with no harsh magical penalty, like the Goblet of Fire had created, he didn't want to pay high fines for not making sure he understood everything from the beginning. And he didn't want to disappoint Mrs Stone, who had made all of this possible in the first place. Finally, after some discussions and more explanations, Harry had chosen his portfolio for the next years and signed the form for the opening of a custody account, the purchase orders for the fonds he had chosen and also opened a money market deposit account for immediate access of his money.

Once he was done, he thanked Mrs Stone again and left the bank, having got a folder with his new financial documents.

* * *

Harry had a lot of fun studying for his masteries in Defence and Charms. He had decided, after thinking it through, with some input from people he trusted, like Kingsley, who told him about the reality of being an auror, or Andromeda Tonks, who he got to know better from spending time with his godson Teddy Lupin, that working as an auror wasn't right for him. Aurors were bound to follow the orders of the higher-ups at the Ministry and before they didn't clean up their ranks with a very fine-toothed comb, that would only end in him being used as a poster boy for the Ministry. Not to his liking at all.

Being told that as a master of any subject you basically had free choice of jobs in the wizarding world, he went over his best classes at Hogwarts, which of course included Defence, but he had also always done well in Charms, especially after finding out that the horcrux in his scar had hampered his performance, as his magic had been redirected to preventing that the soul piece could take over his body in any situation. Since it was gone now, he had much better control and his power levels had risen again, even if they had already been high before. His last year at Hogwarts, which he had decided to do, again after talking with others what the best course of action would be, had been used to fine-tune the higher power levels and learn all the spells he needed to know to get good marks in his NEWTs, which would be necessary to be accepted by any master.

The Ministry might be willing to wave the requirements for being accepted as an auror for him, but he didn't want to be dependant on his fame. He was much more flexible if he could show his NEWT grades if he applied for a job elsewhere. And, to assist the ones that had been sabotaged in their last year at Hogwarts, like the muggleborns, the ones on the run and also those targeted by the Carrows and their supporters and who had then hidden in the Room of Requirement, Professor McGonagall had set up a compressed option to achieve the NEWTs. You could do the NEWT course from June until December and the Ministry would send examiners shortly before the Christmas break to let the 'Seven-and-a-half' years sit the NEWTs.

Hermione had been with him during the months, same with Neville, Parvati and many others, but Ron had refused, wanting to stay at home for a while, dealing with the loss of Fred, which had hit him very hard. He knew that Ron would get problems in getting a proper job, except he joined George at the shop, which could very well happen, as George needed somebody that kept an eye on him. Harry had earned five NEWTs in the subjects he had taken for his sixth year, E's in Potions, Herbology and Transfiguration, and O's in Defence Against the Dark Arts and Charms.

Studying for the masteries in Great Britain wasn't an option for Harry, as the people there were crazy. He decided to take a break from his home country and see more of the world. Mastery studies normally took about five years for any subject. It could take a shorter period of time if you had learned a lot of the things needed for the tests beforehand. A double mastery normally was done within seven years, especially if the subjects overlapped in parts, which Defence and Charms did. As there was a serious lack of proper Defence Masters that also held Charms masteries in Europe, Harry went to a different continent.

His master was a Brazilian wizard, who also liked to participate in Duelling tournaments, which got Harry started in them as well. Rodrigo Esteban liked to work in unconventional ways, explaining to Harry how to harmonise with his magic at the beginning of his apprenticeship. It had the side effect that Harry learned how to use his magic without a wand. It was great to surprise opponents in the duelling circuits. Spells were also much easier to learn when you had a natural understanding of your magic.

He only kept in contact with his friends, who hadn't really understood why he chose to study that far away from Great Britain, but didn't give him too much grief over it, via mail. Normally he sent his letters via international portkey mail, as no post owl would manage the long travel from Brazil to Great Britain continually. He also hadn't got a new one yet. He truly missed Hedwig. He knew that he had to take care of getting one sometime in the near future, but part of what Master Rodrigo taught him while explaining how to harmonise with his magic, was that he had to take the time to actually work through everything that had happened to him.

He needed to accept it, understand it and put it past him. And grieving for the multiple losses he had experienced in his young life, even his pet owl, was a large part of it. It was freeing for Harry to actually have the time and opportunity to do so, especially with somebody that allowed him to talk when he was ready for it, not when he thought he should talk, like Hermione had the habit of doing. Harry had taken to exploring the area when he needed to clear his mind. The landscape was beautiful, and he could walk for hours without meeting other people. Master Rodrigo lived about fifteen kilometres from the next settlement.

From the letters from Great Britain Harry knew that Hermione had joined the Office of Magical Law, which was under the purview of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She was working on making the laws of the country a lot less biased and getting several laws that had been entered by pureblood supremacists over centuries past taken from the law books. It was a huge task, but he could see her thriving in that kind of job. Neville had started an apprenticeship with Professor Sprout, with the goal of succeeding her as Herbology Professor at Hogwarts in some years. Harry could see him being good at the job.

According to Hermione's letter, Mrs Weasley was slowly getting back on her feet. Having lost Fred had devastated her and she had been like a zombie at times, not noticing the world around her. George was similar, losing his other half had destroyed something in him, and he had to piece himself back together. While Harry had wanted to get back together with Ginny after the last battle, it hadn't really worked out, not with the Weasley family being that distraught over the loss of Fred. While Harry could understand them in some way, it was hard to lose a loved person, some comments made about him not understanding how it was to lose a brother made him keep distance.

Harry had lost much more than any of them. First his parents, then his godfather, his mentor, and finally Remus and Tonks, the former being the last living link to his parents. He hadn't known Tonks that well and he was still surprised why the two would choose him as godfather of their son, but he tried to not fail at the job. Andromeda was happy to raise Teddy, but Harry assisted where he could before he first went back to Hogwarts and then left for his apprenticeship. He would return regularly to visit, but Andromeda had made it very clear that it was important for him to do what was right for himself for once, not feel obliged to clean up after other people.

Teddy was too young to really understand what the concept of a godfather meant anyway. And they could come for visits in Brazil easily once Teddy was at least four years old. You didn't want to take international portkeys with children younger than that, if you didn't have to. Harry just made sure to be present for Teddy's birthdays and Christmas.

Thanks to the capital he had in reserve in the muggle world, he didn't feel pressured into anything. He, for once, could take all the time he needed and wanted to study magic. He didn't have to worry about being able to provide for a family, even should he find a girl he fell in love with while still studying. He got quarterly statements to a post-box he had arranged for, which where his mail was collected for a month and then forwarded to him. He didn't get much muggle mail after all. Mainly it was one magazine that came out each month that he had a subscription for and the mail from the bank.

He didn't know what kind of job he wanted to take up in the end, but for now, he had some years to figure it out. Life was progressing well, and he had been given back some belief that there were good people that would do something for others without expecting anything in return. Mrs Stone didn't have to risk that much for him. She could have got in real trouble, should it have been found out, but she still did it. Harry had no contact with the Dursleys anymore, a situation he was very happy about. But he was sure they would throw a stink, should they ever find out about the trick Mrs Stone had pulled on them, forcing them to actually pay their nephew for all his work, without ever knowing.

* * *

 **Hope you liked it.**


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